Chapter: Man in Machine

Erik and Rugrat didn't move in directly as they moved off to the side and Erik laid down to sleep and put his attribute points to work.

==========

You have 5 attribute points to use.

==========

One in strength, one in agility, one in mana pool, and mana regen and Stamina regen.

==========

Character Sheet

==========

Name: Erik West

==========

Level: 12

==========

Race: Human

==========

Titles: From the Grave

==========

Strength: (Base 7) +10

==========

170

==========

Agility: (Base 6) +12

==========

85

==========

Stamina: (Base 10) +1

==========

165

==========

Mana: (Base 6) +8

==========

140

==========

Mana Regeneration (Base 4) +19

5.55/s

==========

Stamina Regeneration: (Base 7) +15

5.15/s

==========

When Erik got up from where he was sleeping he could feel the rush of new power in his body.

"Alright, let's do this lava world shit," Erik said.

Rugrat got up from where he was, they looked over the terrain and discussed it with one another.

"Well, instead of facing it head on, why don't we just go around?" Rugrat asked.

"What?" Erik asked, a bit stunned that such words came from Rugrat’s mouth, and also realizing that for once he was the one about to charge in and do something incredibly stupid.

"It's on its home turf, we're not, maybe it'll have buffs for being in an environment that is a greater advantage to it. Mages using fire spells get buffs when they're in places of greater heat like volcanoes," Rugrat said.

Erik took a step back, he had been simply thinking about the experience that they might gain, looking at the creature as the prize. If they were fighting every beast then they'd get tired, they might gain experience but there was no telling that they might win.

I'm wearing this armor and I might have increased a level but it doesn't mean that I am invincible, far from it.

Erik took a moment to step back, looking at the situation differently.

"The voice said that we only need to get through the door on the other side," Erik said, unlike the trial they had just passed, they could already see the door on the other side.

"Right, so if we can skirt around the outside, not wake it up, we should be able to get to the otherside without any issues," Rugrat said.

"I'd say that it's worth a try," Erik said.

They surveyed the area once again, Erik removed his Golden Fox armor and wore the best stealth gear Rugrat gave him.

They moved through the door slowly and carefully, it closed behind them quickly as they fought to adjust to the soaring temperatures, both of them looked at the Dragonkin as the door disappeared behind they,

There was no reaction from it as the door closed and then disappeared.

Erik followed Rugrat's lead as they moved around the outside of the map, they had to keep drinking water the entire time as they moved, crossing over lava flows and past hot gas pockets that would shoot up poisonous gas at random intervals.

It was slow work but Rugrat forged a path through it all with Erik following.

They reached the other door, it opened to reveal a man sitting on a chair with a desk in front of him.

His eyes glowed as he looked down on Erik and Rugrat.

Erik and Rugrat moved through the door, ready to face any threats that they might find on the other side.

“You have successfully completed the first two stages of the Beast Mountian Trial. You have shown that in times of need you will react without hesitation, instead of charging forth into a known battle you are willing to meekly avoid it to save your energy. Now you must pass through the remaining three trials. Do you wish to continue as a team?” The man asked.

“Yes,” Erik and Rugrat said at the same time with no hesitation in their voices.

The man looked at them both, it was as if they were standing before a Veteran non commissioned officer, there was nothing that they could hide.

They stood up straighter as if readying themselves for whatever trial was to come next.

What test had they gone through together and not had to suffer through until the end? They weren't going to just give up now.

Their fighting spirit was ignited, they were going to win this trial.

"Good," the man smiled as they disappeared.

Erik and Rugrat were covered in white light. Erik saw himself as a child, then growing up through elementary school, the highschool, onto the army and training, the different warzones, the different people, the failed marriages the lost experiences and time.

The pain and hell he had been through. Erik was panting, his emotions a jumble as the white faded away as he appeared in another space. Another flash of light appeared next to him as Rugrat was revealed, they nodded to one another and looked away, getting themselves focused and not wanting the other to see the tears and pain in their eyes.

"You have passed the test of character, pick one of the workshop masters in front of you to judge your item. You can both attempt this trial or only one," the 'door voice' said as they were looking at several men and women that looked at them with blank expressions.

Erik and Rugrat looked at one another.

"I'll give smithing a shot," Rugrat said.

"Sounds good to me," Erik said, he wanted to be an alchemist but he hadn't ever tried it out before, only read about it. Rugrat while he had only tried smithing out for a short period of time, he knew much more of the basic working with metal than Erik knew of working with magical ingredients. It was one thing to harvest them, another thing entirely if he was thinking about trying to make it.

"I'll do smithing," Rugrat said, all of the people went dim except one woman who stepped forward, looking at Rugrat and spitting on the floor.

"Well, this should be good," the woman said in a gravelly voice that came with working around smoke and hot metal for most of one's life.

"Can I ask questions?" Rugrat asked.

"Yes, you are free to do so," the woman replied.

"Any question related to smithing?" Rugrat asked.

Erik didn't know what the other was thinking but by the look in his eye it wasn't simple.

"That's correct as long as it pertains to the item you want to build," the smithing lady said.

"What if you aren't able to answer the question?" Rugrat asked.

"Then I'll freely admit you've passed," the woman laughed, not caring for Rugrat's words.

"Even if there was a time limit of say five minutes?" Rugrat asked.

"Even if there was a time limit of five minutes," the woman droned on, she seemed interested in Rugrat's mysterious words.

"Right, how do I build this," Rugrat directly pulled out his pistol and displayed it to the woman.

The woman's smile stilled on her lips as her brows came together and she moved forwards. Rugrat emptied the pistol, pulling out the magazine and storing it the round in the chamber following it.

"No formations to add abilities, made from simple mortal steel, multiple parts working together in different fashions, could you take it apart for me?" The woman asked, intrigued.

"Sure," Rugrat quickly disassembled the pistol, putting the pieces on the ground.

"The workmanship on this is exquisite, few to no flaws and the different processes to create these parts, there is specialized metal coating this cylinder here and, there's exact grooving down it. Whoever made this must have spent hours to put all of these pieces together," the woman sighed.

"What if I was to tell you that this was made with a batch of weapons, hundreds of them, all of them the exact same," Rugrat said.

"What? That's impossible! It would take hundreds of people to make these and to do it the same way, that's not even in the realm of possible," she argued. Suddenly it was as if a bolt of lightning had gone off in her head. "You're a new arrival! You're not originally from the ten realms!"

She seemed to get excited and wary at the same time as she looked at them both closely again.

"Merrin," the door's voice seemed to remind her of the task at hand.

"Okay, so this, well, the main body you would need to cut out from mortal steel, possibly even Earth steel, I'm talking about the basic version that is. The parts would similarly be made with Earth grade steel, though you would need to shape it with different machines, from this here, to this," Merrin started to get into greater depth as Rugrat hung on every word, writing it all down.

Erik, seeing that they wouldn't be done anytime soon, sat down and got comfortable.

Rugrat went into a greater depth, talking about how one would form the ingot, refine it and then use that to form the pistol between them.

***

To Rugrat it was like he'd wandered into the damn candy store. Merrin talked about the processes that one might refine an ingot, from adding in different kinds of ingredients, these could actually increase the attributes of a normal steel ingot, this could, in turn, form the innate ability of the weapon, certain ingredients were resistance to fire, some to ice or lightning and so on.

Then from creating the ingot, one would have to then form it into their desired shape, or turn it into a sheet and then cut it to the needed shape.

The thing was that the Ten Realms didn't really have measurements, there were rules that were made when making certain things, but centimeters and meters were a foreign concept, when Rugrat told Merrin about it, she nodded as if understanding it.

"When making complicated smaller machines as you call them, then it would be necessary, we're building much larger items here, or one offs. Even with blueprints the final product isn't the exact same as the materials used and the shape that it comes out has been altered by the crafter.

In nearly every crafting trade secrets are only passed from master to disciple so that the information doesn't get out. Measurements as you say, well, each crafter has their own, or they have to attune their senses to what their craft might need and they do it based on what they think."

It was Rugrat's turn to be thoughtful, but they moved on to the barrel, it was made from one solid blank of stainless steel, the processes, one might use tools or they could use spells to alter the steel.

"Tools are used the most, but there are people that are capable of using magic to form metal to the needed requirements, though they're not as strong I've found.

"Which will be able to hold the pressure the best?" Rugrat asked.

"Pressure?" Merrin asked.

Rugrat decided to put the pistol back together.

"So, when I pull the trigger the thing called a hammer moved forward," Rugrat pulled the trigger. "Now that would hit the primer, and ignite the gunpowder, firing the projectile or bullet," Rugrat pulled out a magazine and pointed to the parts of the round. "Ah, it's like the Sha fighters! I knew it was similar!" Merrin smacked her knee.

"Sha fighters?" Erik asked, perking up from all of the boring smithy talk.

"Sha fighters use smithed weapons, like this to fire projectiles through a combination of arrays and fire powder that their alchemists make. Their weapons are much cruder than yours, but I would think that they are stronger due to the formations and the fact that they use a stronger material to make their weapons!"

***

Finally they reached a stage where Merrin couldn't go any more as she didn't under pressure, recoil and how the alchemy side of things worked.

"Alright, you pass this stage, damn thing's like a Sha weapon but instead of just firing one shot at a time it should be able to fire multiple times," Merrin said, annoyed at being beaten, but excited by the weapon in front of her.

The door's voice sighed.

"You've passed the fourth trial. You will now enter the fifth trial."

A white light enveloped them both.